A California Yankee in the Dark Ages

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of Mark Twain’s lesser novels, but it made a mark. In the novel he adopted the device of time travel, I think, in part to display the superiority of democratic modernity to ages past and in part to mock novels that idealize the past. The story is something of a dream burlesque.

Exploring the ancient past, Victor Davis Hanson has recently turned his hand to fiction, but his devastating account of life in the central valley of California is a time travel nightmare come to life. Don’t miss it.